COLD-BLOODED MURDER

ENGLISH PRISONER'S STORY

FOUR YEARS IN GERMAN HANDS.

Further evidence regarding the inhuman treatment of British -officer prisoners in Germany is furnished in a letter from Lieutenant the Hon. Ivan Hay to his father, the Earl of Erroll, the story he tells confirming much that has been heard in this> country concerning the systematic brutality practised by the Huns in the early period of the wav to» wards those who had the misfortune to fall into their hands. Lieutenant' Hay, whose letter is dated 22nd June, 1918, first describes the manner of his capture on 26th August, 1914, near Le Cateau, and states that he was marched into tha town' along with some sixty 'French prisoners. They were halted in th 9 main street, and made to stand on the pavement with their backs to the houses, two rows of German soldiers, with their bayonets touching the stomachs of the prisoners, guarding them.

Two hour* later, after the British had retired (tho letter proceeds), a Hun ur.der-officer pricked a French officer with hia bayonet. The Frenchman grasped the bayonet to protect himself, whereupon the n.c.o. shrieked, "The prisoners resist—Fire !'•' The guard, who, as I say, were practically touching us—let off four rounds rapid. About eleven Frenchmen were killed and about ten seriously wounded. The' poor French officer dropped, riddled with bullets, and after he was on the ground, dead, the Huns near him again and again plunged their bayonets into his corpse. Next to me wei'e the only four English, prisoners. A corporal-of-horse of the Ist Life Guards fell, luckily for him, at the first shot, hit only in the cheek. A corporal of the 2nd fared the same fate, shot in the neck. Two Hubsars (19th, I think) fell. One got all four bullets in the stomach, the other three in the arm and one in the stomach. Then a German sergeant-major came up and said, "As it is only the French who have mutinied, do not shoot the remaining Englander—(me)—but shoot all the French—curse them !" The rifle of the front-rank Hun, which was actually touching me, had jammed;-and the rearrank—a vindictive little brute, who kept shouting "Englander ! Schweinhund !" —let his piece off four times in my face, but managed to miss me entirely, though by the four marks on the door against which I was standing two bullets must have passed a hairs-breadth on each side of my face. Luckily I remembered enough German to thrust myself in between the remaining French and the firing party and say to the Hun ser-geant-major, "You cannot murder prisoners in cold blood. At least send for an officer first." To my astonishment he agreed, and did so. The officer, on arrival, said humanely, "Enough h'av« been killed; take the swine to the church." PRODDED WITH LANCES. After three days' we were marched to Mons. There were five officer* of various regiments (three of them wounded) and 180 men of all regiments, and about 800 French. I shall not forget that march. All three days we were continually passing German troops. The cavalry prodded us with their lances, the artillery and engineers struck at us with their whips, and the tired infantry cursed us, and spat on our clothes as we passed. Our guard, though decent, dared not protect us. At Mons we spent three days shut up in a tiny room the size of a London bathroom—two French, two Belgian flyers, and five British (three wounded). The room was unfurnished except for a little straw, and when we lay down to sleep our legs crossed. The heat was stifling. Periodically Hun officers came and stood in the doorway and cursed us. The heat was ghastly. Once some Belgians managed to bring us sardines, bread and ,water, and once, a. German Uhlan of the Guard officer, who had stayed at .Balmoral, smuggled, wine, bread, and some sardines under his tunic to us; He also, at my request, got water for our 180 Tommies. Next we were marched two or three days (I forget which) to Hal, in Belgium. We halted once, and the Huns killed a cow, and wo were allowed some raw flesh and ditch water. The prisoners, irrespective of rank, had to carry the German soldiers' packs. At, Hal we entrained. We were four days on the way to Sennelager, fed and watered once. At several stations we were nearly lynched. ' At Cologne there was a large' Bed Cross counter all down the platform teeming with hot cocoa, tea, coffee, and chocolate and eatables. This, was served by the "ladies" of Cologne, who over their expensive toilettes had a Bed Cross pinned. The guard Allowed me to get my-head out of the window., so I asked these dear high-born ladies of a cultured race to give our groaning wounded some water or coffee or something. They accordingly filled some tumblers with water, took them to our wounded, and as, the poor fellows stretched out their hands for'the first drink for two or three days these "high-born ladies" poured the water on the floor of the carriages or the platform, exclaiming, "Thns do we give water to yon English pig-dogs," and retired,, shrieking with laughter, to their Red Cross counter. The rest of the journey was much on a par. I was captured on 26th August at 6 a.m., and I reached Torgau at noon on Bth September. DIARY OF HARDSHIPS. In Torgau, a fort built by Napoleon to guard the Elbe, the senior officers were in the fort itself. We were in sheds, at first seventy in a' room the size of the diningroom at home, without beds, and slept on the floor; later, forty, in a slightly bigger shed. We got some coffee in a bucket in the morning, soup at lunch, and soup and black bread at dinner, and as we got no parcels as yet, you can imagine we were pretty hungry. As we were all captured in August or September,, we had mostly thin shirts on at the time, so'you can imagine how cold we were by November in wooden sheds of only one plank thickness, not to mention how dirty the shirt was by then or how worn out the socks. I expect Donington Hall was a bit different. The story is continued in. diary form as follows :—

End of November we moved to Burg. Artillery mobilisation sheds. Twenty officers in a room. No two English allowed to, sleep next to each other—a Russian on one side and a Frenchman on the other. Meals, generally fish, eaten on our beds. Nine inches between beds. Imagine the stink of the room by night. The Russians were damn good fellows, and would try'and thrust half their own wretched rations on. us.

14th April to 14th June, '1915— Burg. Criminal gaol, under reprisal. Comparative heaven. Life of an ordinary German convict. Clean cell to one's self. Decent, civil Saxon gaoler, and never knocked about.

14th June to Ist August—Burg Lager again. Hell!

Clausthal, lst : lsth August to Ist September. 19lfe—Better. Decent feeding arrangements. Overcrowdingof bedrooms appalling. Walking space 50 yards by 120. Not worried or knocked about by Huns.

Osnabruck. Ist September to 14th Decomber, 1916—Hell again. Artillery tovftdtis fine building, bat treatment bad, ABMt.froffl houMPg. Ibreft p|*-.

sages in barracks boarded off for Russian officers, as reprisals for alleged illtreatment of Huns in Astrakhan. Thirty officers in room meant for twenty soldiers. Windows boarded over, to make room always dark. No soap or water allowed.

Crefeld, 16th December to 17th MayOnly eight in each room. Good cavalry barracks, and decent commandant—old Hussar officer. Allowed to do exactly as we liked in lager. Scharmstadt, . 10th ,Army Corps— Leaky wooden huts, infested with vermin, in middle!..'of sand-and'heather desert. ; Conditions intolerable. By the way, we were beaten from the lager to tho station, carrying pur own laggage, by a special "strafe battalion" sent for the purpose.

Jloizminden—Worst of all. Abo 10th ox Eanoveriau Army Corps. Ten stoves, out «f doors in. baxrack square : for 600 to cook on.' I! lucky, one Jtiea! a day, after standing hours in cooking queue. Knocked out. of bed with butts of rifles afe dawn most mornings. Commandant frequently drunk, and when drank used 1« make sentries and guard fire volleys through windows. God knows why nobody hit. ■